


We Need the Best Team...

by Bluewolf458



Category: The Sentinel
Genre: Gen, Sentinel Thursday
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-09-09
Updated: 2017-09-09
Packaged: 2018-12-25 18:49:03
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 867
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12042036
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Bluewolf458/pseuds/Bluewolf458
Summary: A very minor theft has been given to Major Crime





	We Need the Best Team...

**Author's Note:**

> Written for the Sentinel Thursday prompt 'chief'

 

We Need the Best Team...

by Bluewolf

"I'm sorry, Jim," Simon said - and to the sentinel's perceptive ear he did indeed sound genuinely apologetic.

"Something kicked up to us from bunko by the Mayor, wanting your 'best team' on the job to catch whoever nicked a cutting off his wife's brother-in-law's sister-in-law's favorite fuschia?" Blair asked.

Simon grinned. "Not quite that inconsequential, and for once, not the Mayor," he said. "This time it's the Commissioner." He made a face. "Just why the guys at the top think that there are more hours in your day than anyone else's... "

"We really need at least two more teams in Major Crime," Jim said quietly. "and the other departments are just as short-handed."

"The budget doesn't allow for it," Simon muttered.

"Yet the Commissioner has an assistant, and *he* has an assistant, and *he*... " Blair sighed. "Too many chiefs and not enough Indians. If they'd get rid of half the guys at the top, they could give all the departments at least one more pair of detectives."

Simon nodded. "I remember the days when there *was* just the Commissioner, and if he was off the Chief of Police took over. Seriously, between ourselves, I'm not sure just what the Commissioner does these days. His various assistants seem to be there to do all the work.

"Anyway, this 'case' he's given us... " He shook his head. "His grandfather served in WW2, and was stationed in Europe for about a year just after the war. A lot of Europe was in a pretty bad way, but some people found a way of making money from the liberating - or occupying - army, by selling handmade souvenirs, and his grandfather sent his grandmother some small embroidered handkerchiefs. They were the sort of thing that would be worn for display, tucked judiciously into a pocket with the embroidery showing, but certainly never used. Apparently a week ago his grandmother lent them to Cascade Museum for a display of wartime memorabilia - and they've disappeared."

"Handkerchiefs!" Jim exclaimed. "Okay, under the circumstances I can see that they'd have sentimental value, but really... "

Blair, however, was frowning. "Actually, Jim, something like that would be worth more money than you might think," he said.

"Chief, the chief motive for theft is usually the value of whatever is stolen. You can buy a box of six good quality handkerchiefs for just five or six dollars!" Jim exclaimed.

"Jim, we all know that," Blair agreed. "In this case, however... Something like that could be of considerable interest to a collector of WW2 memorabilia. If the handkerchiefs were displayed with a label giving the provenance... you could be talking a value of at least a hundred dollars, even more. Okay, that's peanuts for what you might call a professional thief, but it's a nice little bonus for a usually law-abiding, opportunist thief who knows someone who'd be interested. I think the place to start looking is Hardy's Hobby Shop, see if Tom Hardy knows anyone who collects WW2 memorabilia. If he does - that's who we visit, bearing in mind that if whoever it is does have the handkerchiefs he probably bought them in good faith and mightn't even know how to contact the seller."

Both Simon and Jim were staring, slightly open-mouthed, as Blair revealed, not for the first time, the information he could pull out of thin air.

Simon shook his head as he pulled his attention back to the Commissioner's demands. "All right," he said. "Go and check out this hobby shop - you know the owner, Sandburg?"

"Not well, but yes."

"All right. See what, if anything, he can tell you, and take it from there."

Blair nodded and he and Jim left Simon's office heading for Hardy's Hobby Shop.

***

As it happened, Tom Hardy had the handkerchiefs, bought the previous evening for $75 from an elderly woman who said her uncle had bought them in Germany in 1945. He had recognized the style of embroidery, and known they were genuine; and was horrified to learn that they had been stolen. (They were identified by the Commissioner's grandmother, called by Jim to make sure.)

Buying stolen goods was an occupational hazard of his trade; Tom tended to be cautious when the seller was a fairly young man, but he hadn't been suspicious of an elderly woman. It was of course possible that there were two sets of identical handkerchiefs and the stolen ones had been disposed of elsewhere; but Tom returned them to the Commissioner's grandmother, saying he would be reimbursed by his insurance company since one of the things he was insured for was the possibility that he might end up with stolen goods.

And the team of Ellison and Sandburg returned to the PD, sighing resignedly. Their reputation as 'the best' was not just maintained, but enhanced.

This crime had been easily solved; but what would happen the next time the Mayor, Commissioner or Chief of Police wanted 'the best team' to solve a relatively minor crime that affected either them or one of their relatives or friends?

Jim, at least, was beginning to think that a change of career to private detective might be an extremely good idea!

**Author's Note:**

> The small, fancy handkerchiefs are taken from life. At the end of the war my father was stationed in Germany, and at onle point sent my mother and me a present of small fancy handkerchiefs. Purely decorative. I still have them somewhere in the house, though I'm not sure where they are.


End file.
